They are just words, I know. Maybe I shouldn’t let them bother me quite as much as they do, but ugh! They really bother me.

I can’t seem to do anything without getting one of these letters or emails or text messages or phone calls nowadays. Oh, how I long for the days when I can just go to the shop and buy something, and as soon as I leave the experience ends there. Or use a service and when it’s done, it’s done.

‘They’ say they want the feedback so they can improve their services. ‘They’ say it is for customer satisfaction. ‘They’ say it is for marketing purposes. ‘They’ always seem to ask for this, yet wherever you go everything is always as it has been.

‘They’ say it takes five minutes to complete their ‘customer satisfaction surveys’. It probably does, per survey, but when you get asked for feedback for every bloomin’ thing you do those five minutes can add up to an hour or two.

I had one manager of a mobile phone store once tell me to give the store a mark of 9 or 10 on how well they did, when I received their survey, otherwise it would trigger an investigation within their internal review team. Unfortunately, the manager lied to me regarding the wording of a contract, after I had to wait for over an hour to be seen in the first place, so they didn’t even get a score of zero from me. I never responded. I’d already lost an hour waiting to be told how to answer the question.

I made a phone call earlier today to an energy company, and as I was trying to give a little more detail regarding my enquiry, the advisor simply cut me off mid-sentence and asked me a totally different question. I then, shortly afterwards, received a phone call from their internal review team asking how well they did. Well, I say phone call – it was from a robot. Same as with the mobile phone store, they didn’t get any feedback. (Phone calls nowadays ore recorded ‘for training purposes’, so they may hear that call, should their internal review team get round to listening to it.)

The dentists want to know how they’ve done. The computer shop want to know how they’ve done. The Bathroom-fitting people want to know how they’ve done. The petrol station want to know how they’ve done. Even places where there is no alternative to go to want to know if I would recommend their services.

Aaaarghhhhhh!!!!!

Companies! Please!!!

If you do not know how you are operating yourselves, then it is rather a poor show, don’t you think? Instead of investing in these tactics, why don’t you just provide a good service, or, if you want to show off, a really good service, and have done with it. If you mess it up, and you will, no worries there, just have your customer services team on standby ready to handle the complaint.

Sigh.

Maybe I’m getting old now, and this is the start of the onset of grumpiness. Mind you, I must have started getting old when I was a teenager, because I have been somewhat grumpy (in certain circumstances!) since then.

So… does this question cause you to feel the same way? I’d love to know. Please leave your feedback in the comments below…

Better late than never, I suppose. This next lot of festive limericks are dinging and donging merrily on the cusp of absurdity. And one requires a little help with the festive cheer. A little punch perhaps. A cracker of an ending. Read on… if you can get to the end, that is!!!

There was a red man in the sky Who bellowed with laughter up high “With a ‘Ho! Ho! Ho!’ Onward he’d go Following reindeer who knew how to fly!

The sprout on the plate was lonely It was there, the one and only Beside carrots and spuds Turkey bits and puds But the rest of the meal was homely

The snowman looked on with glee As white was all he could see But he had a surprise When he cleared both his eyes And found he was on a beach in Hawaii

And now, over to you… complete this festive limerick in the comments below.

There was a nice chap called Bob Who wanted a better job One day he was called To remove a fireplace wall

Dear Desk,
I’m awfully sorry to keep shifting you and things this way and that… but it is all for a good cause – it’s so I can use my brand new computer with ginormous monitor to do one thing, whilst using my existing computer to do another, such as update my blog. Your current layout works do much better than previous attempts, so I’m sticking with this one.

Dear Old Computer,
See? I told you I would still be using you.

Dear New Computer,
Hello and welcome to the Mansion, and beyond! I’m still installing my software, which I know will take a while, but it is taking a while. I shall get there one day soon, I know it!

Dear Thoughtless Dillops,
As you know, your terrible driving gives me the right to give you the name ‘dillop’. You may not give your disregard for other road users a second thought, but for some reason lately, I have been troubled by your less than adequate driving skills. I’m writing just to let you know, that from now on, you are on your own, and I shall merely observe your behaviour and dismiss both it and you in that instant. I need to rearrange my thought processes a little, but without having your actions there cluttering my mind, I should find this task quite easy.

Dear December,
Have you rearranged your days this year? I’m sure it was the first only yesterday.

Dear Brexit,
I do hope you are not trying to secretly try to coerce my vote should we be plunged into another ridiculous referendum. I tried to find an unusual word online that meant the same as ‘rearrange’, so it would tie in with this week’s Letters To The Universe. The website I chose advised me an antonym for ‘rearrange’ is ‘remain’, which made me think that it isn’t exactly an opposite meaning. Unless it’s just me and all I can see as the opposite there is leave.

Dear Fingers,
Please be aware that just because I haven’t mentioned you for a while, I am still aware that you are trying to influence my typing by rearranging my letters for me. Just because the keyboard is on the opposite side of the desk, the keys are still in the same place that they always have been.

Dear Blogland,
Just to explain, Fingers, for those of you who may be unaware, is my Inner Typist. He loves nothing more than rearranging my typing as I type. He makes it take twice as long to get a good post out.

And Finally, Dear Becky,
I’m running out of square photos for your December Square ‘Time’ challenge, but I do have a couple left… ‘foody’ ones, if you like. Today’s photo is ‘Lunch Time’…

Thank you for reading,

P.S. This is a scheduled post, so I shall be adding a link to Becky’s psot ltaer tdaoy. Orehtswie, vsiit Bkecy’s stie tughorh the Lniks Pgae avobe. FINGERS!!!!!